PANDURANGAPURAM TURNS SIXTY TODAY I feel proud to say that we hail from Kollipara village which sown seeds for a model village "Pandurangapuram" in Nandyal area, Kurnool dist. Hard working farmers, migrated by selling their rich lands in krishna delta and proved that one can do wonders with self discipline, collective action and determination. If I am not wrong, the land rates in Kollipara in 60s itself are around Rs 15000/acre and by selling 1 acre they could buy about 15 to 20 acres in Nandyal area and rep licated kollipara value systems and the flair for best cultivation practices. Though kollipara is very old village, it is known for good master plan with wide and straight roads, clean environment and lush green fields .  In our lifetime , we had not come across any major disputes, law and order problems in kollipara and politics begin and end once election process is over. Kollipara boasts for its best socio economic agrarian systems. Repeating koll...

THE TRADITIONAL VILLAGE CULTURE IS FAST DISAPPEARING  I am camping in our native village for 3 days to participate in my 4th puskarams. This is the most hyped and participated puskaram but coming to traditions it is the least practised. Indian villages evolved with farming community and support communities coexist with communal harmony and sustain the complete agrarian system. Purohit, trader, Dobi, barber, cobbler, tailor, Toddy tapper etc used to play supportive role effectively keeping farming community as center of activity. Farmers used to pay most of them in kind (farm produce) and celebrate festivals with offerings to them. Now the situation at least in coastal AP is completely different. Dobi charging around Rs.200/per head/month, so Dobi is being replaced by  washing machines, similarly cobbler, Barber etc. Enterprising people among farming community got into trade  replacing traditional vysyas. This impact is clearly seen during puskarams. No tr...

ROLE OF FARMERS IN DEFENCE FOOD PROCUREMENT Indian Defence: India is always proud of its armed forces and right from the independence they are doing commendable job to safeguard the country from external forces. Be it with Pakistan or China our armed forces proved their exemplary skills in dealing with any situation and when it comes to helping neighbours like Bangladesh, Srilanka we played the role of big brother/mentor. Let all of salute our armed forces for performing the task of saving the nation at the cost of their lives. When it comes to the international relations and peace accords,   we are conducting ourselves in a dignified manner and maintaining perfect balance. Defence expenditure is one of the major budget items and despite huge pressure on finances, India is never compromising on defence budget allocations and always priority is given for allocation as well as releases. Off late the capital expenditure in defence is coming down and certainly ...

DOES SLOGANS MAKE FORTUNES FOR LEADERS? 9 historic political slogans Jai jawan Jai kisan -1965- LBS- Historic mandate for congress in 1967 Garibi Hatao-1971- IG- landslide victory for new congress in 1971. Indira hatao Desh Bachao-1977- JPN- Janata party rule Ek sherini sau langur-1978- Devraj Urs- IG win in Chikamaglur bielection and return of congress in 1980 Jab Tak Suraj Chand Rahega Indira Tera Naam Rahega-1984 - sympathy wave after indira assignation Bari bari sabki bari -abki bari atal bihari -1996- first Bjp govt Jai jawan jai kisan jai Vignan -1998- ABV- 1999 clear mandate for BJP Congress ka haath -aam admi ke saath - 2004 -brought back congress rule India Shining - 2004- VN & Pramod Mahajan - turned as reverse missile (BJP shining India fading) and ABV lost power despite his clean image Compiled by BGR

FAMILY ENGAGEMENT - PRODUCTIVE AGRICULTURE Today I happened to be be in  my village Kollipara, Krishna Delta in Guntur dist known for its highly fertile soils with abundant water resources. My interactions with few farmers from Reddy community revealed that own farming is uneconomical and many of them are leasing out lands to farmers from SC and BC communities. It is interesting to note that for this new generation farmers ,agriculture is giving decent livelihood other than elevated social status I.e., agri labourer to cultivator. It is possible because of involvement of their entire family in agri operations, resulting in better productivity and operational efficiency. In upper class communities like Reddys, Kammas etc who are traditionally farmers, the entire womenfolk is almost out of agri operations and men seldom work. The over dependency on external labour resulting in lower productivity and inefficient operations resulting in lower  production. My intera...

IMPACT OF INDISCRIMINATE IMPORT OF AGRI. PRODUCTS In fact I mentioned about indiscriminate import of Agri produce and it's negative impact on our farmers in my recent blogs. Despite bumper production India food imports gone by 110 times in last three years. What is the need for such imports by reducing /zero import duty and making local markets unremunerative to local farmers, in turn farmers are getting into agitation mode? Whom are these unwarranted policies benefiting? Is the consumers benefited? I really doubt. As I know the influential links in the supply chain made tons and tons of notes. As it was given to understand GOI is seriously considering probing into the bofors issue again. In reality the dynamics involved in indiscriminate import of cereals, maize, pulses is creating doubt about the integrity of the system and looks to be on much larger scale than bofors. GOI under Sri Modi ji ,which is projected as clean govt has to look into the real dynamic...

https://thewire.in/157527/india-agrarian-import-bill-2015-2016-farmers/ Requesting friends to read the above article. In fact I mentioned about indiscriminate import of Agri produce and it's negative impact on our farmers in my recent blogs. Despite bumper production india food imports gone by 110 times in last three years. What is the need for such imports by reducing /zero import duty and making local markets unremunerative to local farmers, in turn farmers are getting into agitation mode? Whom are these unwarranted policies benefiting? Is the consumers benefited? I really doubt. As I know the influential links in the supply chain made tons and tons of notes. As it was given to understand, GOI is seriously considering probing into the bofors issue again. In reality the dynamics involved in indiscriminate import of cereals, maize, pulses is creating doubt about the integrity of the system and looks to be on much larger scale than bofors. GOI under Sri Modi ji ,...

FAMOUS QUOTE: “The farmer is the only man in our economy who buys everything at retail, sells everything at wholesale, and pays the freight both ways.” » John F. Kennedy The situation reasonably changed in USA markets due to promotion of farmer markets and better bargaining capacity of USA farmers due to large holdings and capacity to hoard the stocks. This famous quote from then USA president is very much relevant to Indian agriculture where over 70% of the farmers sell the  produce soon after harvest. Any attempts to alter this quote will certainly bring positive changes in Indian agrarian systems and it is the need of the hour. An innovative thinking with farmer centrist approach is the essence and more and more brains with commitment have to come forward to secure the lives of our bread growers. Youth has a major role to play, utilise some of your IT skills, technology, networking for innovations, value addition in agriculture markets, rather than saturating IOT/AP...

Doubling farmers income by 2022 - vision Increase in fertiliser, pesticide, tractors , agri implements prices considerably with new GST. Even organic fertilisers are not spared. e NAM is being projected as big achievement, but in reality it is just functioning as data entry tool. Zero budget natural farming (ZBNF) is being projected as an alternative. Is there any scientific validation for improving yields through this method? Can we really scale it up? Unwanted import of food grain s and throwing them into gutters after price crash locally - present mission If this mission continue like this, forget about doubling farmer income, it may lead to doubling farmer debts. Please wake up and be sincere to farmers. BGR

HAR KADAM KISAN KI BAROSHA MEIN --COMPREHENSIVE SOLUTIONS FOR COMPLICATED INDIAN AGRICULTURE Introduction: India is gifted with rich soils, most suitable climatic conditions and water resources to produce variety of crops throughout the year. Being tropical country with different climatic zones we are in a position to grow variety of fruits round the year and Indian food and fruits taste better due its natural conditions. Due to these advantages, despite huge population, fragmented holdings, lower investments we are able to meet our requirements and by and large recognized as self sufficient country. Green revolution, white revolution, thrust on major irrigation dams soon after independence richly contributed for growth of Indian agriculture. Recent challenges: The impact of inappropriate minimum support prices, lack of timely credit facilities, storage facilities, failure of APMCs, globalization, technology, rising input costs, erratic prices, inconsistent govern...

TONGUE  CULTURE VS AGRICULTURE Venkaiah Naidu Garu hails from Agricultural family in Nellore Dist, AP. It is really unfortunate that he forgot the roots and provoking farm sector by making erotic and inconsistent statements like "loan waiver became fashion" , loans shall be waived in extreme conditions only etc. In fact he is the one who promised loan waiver during TN elections and later followed by PM in UP elections. Why to promise in first place and later making jokes ou t of it. Is it good on anyone's part to play with lives of farmers like this? If advanced states in agriculture like Maharastra, TN, Karnataka, AP are seeing a crisis agrarian situation and going with loan waiver as immediate solution, can GOI ministers take different stand and create confusion? In fact it has become fashion for every minister except agriculture minister to talk about farm sector and pass sarcastic comments despite the head of the Government promising unconditional loan ...

Hi Friends, Indian Agriculture is doing well with bumper harvests, but our farmers are unhappy. They have resorted to agitations all over India. Stopping of Milk and vegetables to Mumbai for 3 days had caused immense difficulties to 12 million Mumbaikars. What will happen if similar situation is repeated in  Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai,Kolkatta and other metros. People living cities working as employees and doing business must realise that the policy makers have let down the farmers. Politicians are not trustworthy because they neglect farmers. Congress has not implemented Dr. Swaminathan Report for 3 years. Mr. Modi before becoming PM , promised to implement the above report. But in 3 years he refused keep his promises. In addition he has created problems by importing large quantities of Agri. commodities. This has caused huge losses to farmers. Mr. Modi announced Loan Waiver in UP assembly elections, but refusing to implement 2014 parliament Electio...

CAN A NATION REALLY GROW TALL WHEN IT'S OVER 30% OF CHILDREN HAVE RETARDED GROWTH AND UNDER NOURISHED!! As published in "EENADU " Telugu daily on 15.06.17 quoting UNICEF survey in AP, over 50% of women are suffering with severe blood deficit particularly in productive age group. Drinking water, sanitation, poverty, socioeconomic conditions, functional literacy etc are the main causes reflecting in under weight and retarded growth of children. As reported over 60% of income of poor is being spent on basic food. What is happening to "A to Z welfare programs " already in force and being announced on daily basis. It has become order of the day for ruling parties to announce or rename old programs ,rather than giving serious look into reach, spread and accountability. End result or out come is that the delivery is more to contractors/ corrupt Systems's web or getting into drains rather than reaching real and needy poor people. If we do not take these...

AGRICULTURE PRODUCE MARKETING – NEED FOR  INNOVATIONS Role of existing APMCs: APMCs are started with a purpose of protecting farmers from distress sale at farm gate to money lenders and traders. Direct sale of Agri produce by farmers at village to any intermediaries, end users is banned and farmers are supposed to bring produce to APMC markets and sell in auction method under the supervision of APMC.   Certain states relaxed the norms and allowed few wholesalers like ITC are allowed to conduct direct purchases under e-choupal platform. Also direct sales to super markets , more trade friendly norms are being initiated in few states. Karnataka is more advanced state as far as APMC reforms are concerned followed by Maharashtra, MP, AP, UP.  IT enabled auction platform was implemented in few mandis through NCDEX and its named as “mandi modernisation program”. Government of India dec...